For elite Indian students seeking international study, the location of choice for is often Ivy League colleges in the US or the UK’s Oxford and Cambridge.
But Australia wants to encourage more top students to study at Australia's Group of 8 research universities.
Ashik Thomas Joseph is already here, enrolled in a Masters in Information Systems at the University of Melbourne.
The 25-year-old said there were many universities in the US, but he wanted “some sort of change”.
“I thought let’s go down south and see what is there,” he said.
“Of course, Melbourne is the most liveable city in the world right now and the University of Melbourne is ranked 44 in the world.
“Plus the course that I do is ranked 13 worldwide, so I thought it’s a really good choice.”\
"Melbourne is the most liveable city in the world right now and the University of Melbourne is ranked 44 in the world."
In India this week, Christopher Pyne will lead a new push designed to expand educational and research links and help attract India's best and brightest.
The Education Minister – accompanied by his new Education Ambassador cricketer Adam Gilchrist and University Vice Chancellors - will be attending the annual Ministerial Dialogue and third Australia-India Education Council meeting in India.
Professor Ian Young, Vice Chancellor of the Australian National University, is on the tour to help address the challenge of Australia’s image as a “not particularly high quality destination for education”.
“The very best Indian students tend to want to go to the United States and the United Kingdom,” he said.
“There is a very significant push by the Group of eight Universities, because we are indeed some of the best universities in the world.
“We believe there is significant role Australia can play in attracting the truly outstanding Indian students. There are many truly outstanding Indian students and we hope to bring them into our universities as well.”
Melbourne University will be opening a Delhi centre for its Australia India Institute during the visit.
Vice Chancellor Professor Glyn Davis from Melbourne University told SBS that over the past few years in Melbourne, the university had built the Australia India Institute to “really get serious” about academic links between the two countries.
“Now there will be these two small intense institutions, part of the Australia India Institute, in Melbourne and Delhi talking to each other building on exchanges working together,” he said.
“For me it is a very important moment we have worked a long time towards this.”
Professor Davis said Melbourne University is trying to attract PhD students who have research interests in both countries and see their careers unfolding and working across both India and Australia.
“We believe there is significant role Australia can play in attracting the truly outstanding Indian students. There are many truly outstanding Indian students and we hope to bring them into our universities as well.”
He said Australian universities are increasingly partnering with Indian universities to offer programs in India.
India is the second largest source of foreign students in Australia, but the proportion coming here for high level degrees at top universities is relatively low.
India's High Commissioner to Canberra Navdeep Suri said educational links between the two countries were growing.
“It is amazing to see the number of really important research being jointly funded by Indian and Australian scientists for joint research from genetics and biotechnology and so on,” he said.
Six years ago saw a crisis in enrolments of Indian students, as safety concerns and protests resulted in widespread negative publicity in India.
Enrolments rapidly dropped by 50 per cent, falling from the peak of 27,000 international Indian students in Australia. That has built back up to 25,000.
High Commissioner Suri said both sides have worked to solve significant issues and problems that existed.
“I think it has picked up again because Australia is very competitive for education and has a good reputation,” he said.
Liberal MP Alex Hawke is the Chair of the Parliamentary Friends of India Group and he said education links are progressing.
“I think it has picked up again because Australia is very competitive for education and has a good reputation."
“There was some negative media in that period and it did do some damage and it is not something we want to see,” he said.
“The cultural exchange that happens between Australia and India is very important. One of the great things were we have a synergy is education. The Indian culture puts a high premium on education.”
Arjun Kapoor chose to do an undergraduate computer science degree at Melbourne University despite some negative publicity about Australia.
The 19-year-old said he has had no problems and loves Melbourne.
“My parents were worried though they had heard a lot about racism in the Indian media but that didn't really stop me,” he said.
“Australia is a good place to study.”
Mr Kapoor predicts that more Indian students will want to study here if programs are more widely promoted and advertised in India.
He said many of his friends in India didn't know that Melbourne University was highly ranked on international education tables.
